Softball: Warde knocks off Staples 11-2

By Aaron Johnson

Published
5:20 pm EDT, Friday, April 13, 2018

WESTPORT — Olivia Vadas struck out 10 in a dominant effort for Fairfield Warde as the Mustangs defeated Staples 11-2 on Friday afternoon.

“We don’t like to underestimate anyone,” Vadas said. “We mostly talk about everyone on our team going out and doing their jobs. And I think we did that today. Our defense had to be strong because this team can hit when given the opportunity and we just tried to not give them any opportunities.”

While Vadas kept the Wreckers’ hitters off balance, it was a big five-run sixth inning that broke the game open for the Mustangs. Being able to get timely hits has been a theme all season and Warde was able to get it done on this day, coach Gary Quiricone said.

“Early on in the season we knew we had the great pitching behind Olivia and we had great defensive play,” he said. “But we weren’t scoring. They’ve been working hard on their hitting and this was the piece of the puzzle we were missing.”

Staples struggled defensively, committing six errors. The Wreckers will make it a priority to get that corrected going forward, coach Luigi Cammarota said.

“The girls just got to field the ball,” he said. “We just have to be better focused in the field and more aggressive. We made a lot of errors. They hit the ball, we didn’t field the ball. We have to be able to field the ball. People are going to get hits, there’s no one in this league who’s going to strike out 21 (batters). So they make contact, we’ve got to field it and we’ve got to throw them out.”

Vadas — who also finished with a double and a run scored — was able to keep Staples uncomfortable at the plate for much of the game, but the run support is what got the Mustangs over the hump, she said.

“I love to know that my team is behind me,” Vadas said. “You can’t win the game without scoring runs. They did a great job of doing that today.”

WINNER, WINNER

With the win, the Mustangs have knocked off three straight opponents.

ROUGH OUTINGS

Staples has dropped three out of the last four games and has been outscored 39-5 in those games.

ajohnson

@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @aronJohnson_

STAPLES 2, FAIRFIELD WARDE 11

FFLD WARDE012 015 2—11 9 0

STAPLES000 002 0—2 5 6

Records: Ffld Warde 3-2, Staples 1-4. Batteries: W—Olivia Vadas (W) and Kathleen Goodchild; S—Sophia Alfero (L) and Maisie Dembski. Highlights: W—Sophia Sancho had one hit and scored three runs. Amanda Petrizzi had a hit and scored three runs. S—Taylor Rochlin had two stolen bases and a run scored.